U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,902,211 and 4,227,483 are typical of prior art references showing machines, operable on a shoe assembly formed of a last having an upper draped thereon and an insole located on its bottom, for stretching the vamp of the upper about the last and wiping the vamp of the upper margin against the insole. In these prior art machines, there are provided: an insole rest mounted for heightwise movement between a lower position and an upper position; a plurality of pincers extending about the insole rest, each pincers having a pair of jaws movable between open and closed positions; wiping means, mounted for forward and inward movement, extending outwardly about the insole rest; means for initially maintaining the insole rest in its lower position wherein the top of the insole rest is below the level of the wiping means with the shoe assembly so supported on the insole rest that the toe end of the shoe assembly faces rearwardly; means for initially maintaining all of the pincers jaws in their open positions; means for thereafter causing all of the pincers jaws to move to their closed positions to thereby grip the vamp of the upper margin; means for thereafter effecting rising movement of the insole rest to its upper position wherein the top of the insole rest is substantially at the level of the top of the wiping means to thereby enable the vamp of the upper to be stretched about the vamp of the last; means for thereafter imparting forward and inward movement, in a wiping stroke, to the wiping means to cause the wiping means to wipe the vamp of the upper margin against the insole; and means for causing all of the pincers jaws to move to their open positions and release the gripped vamp of the upper margin prior to the completion of the wiping stroke.
It is desirable that, at the completion of the rise of the insole rest, the bottom of the insole that is supported by the insole rest be substantially at the level of the top of the wiping means in order for the wiping means to effectively perform its wiping function. Therefore, at this time, the top of the insole rest should be substantially parallel to the top of the wiping means. In the prior art machine, the insole rest is movable at right angles to the direction of movement of the wiping means during the wiping stroke so that in the lower position of the insole rest the top of the insole rest and the bottom of the insole are substantially parallel to the tops of the wiping means.
It has been found that, with this arrangement of the insole rest when in its lower position, difficulties have arisen in placing portions of the margin of the vamp of the upper between certain of the pincers jaws because of the narrowness of certain portions of the upper margin. This problem is particularly troublesome in connection with the placement of the ball portions of the upper margin between the jaws of ball pincers which are furthermost from the toe end of the shoe assembly. In accordance with this invention, this difficulty is overcome by providing in the machine: means mounting the insole rest for heightwise swinging movement, about a prone axis that is located rearwardly of the insole rest, between an inclined position wherein the insole rest top is inclined rearwardly and upwardly and a prone position wherein the insole rest top is substantially parallel to the top of the wiping means; means for initially maintaining the insole rest in its inclined position when the insole rest is in its lower position; and means to effect such swinging movement to the insole rest about said axis that the insole rest is in its prone position when the insole rest is in its upper position. With this arrangement, the placement of the shoe assembly on the insole rest, while the insole rest is in its inclined position, enables all of the margin of the vamp of the upper to be readily placed between all of the pincers jaws and the insole rest top is still substantially parallel to the top of the wiping means at the completion of the rise of the insole rest.